Care Academy Blog

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Care Academy is pleased to announce the launch of a dedicated suite of e-learning courses designed to enable Scottish care providers meet their obligations when providing induction training to new care workers.

Based upon The Scottish Social Service Council (SSSC) 'Preparing for Practice' guidance, Care Academy's e-learning offers a comprehensive range of course's including:

Course 1
Preparing for Practice – Introduction

• Welcome to the Organisation.
• Values of Care.
• Support and Supervision.

Course 2
Introduction to Social Service Practice (Pt 1)

• Your Role as a Carer.
• Personal Care.
• Worker Relationships.
• Person Centred Planning.
• Risk Assessment.

Course 3
Introduction to Social Service Practice (Pt 2)

• Adult Support and Protection.

Course 4
Introduction to Social Service Practice (Pt 3)

• Communicating Effectively.
• Principles of Good Record Keeping.

Course 5
Preparing For Practice - Service Specific issues

• Death, Dying and Bereavement.
• Effects of the Service Setting.
• Intro to Dementia.
• Intro to Autism.
• Intro to Mental Health.
• Intro to Learning Disabilities.

Course 6
The Workplace 1 - Moving and Handling

• Introduction to Moving and Handling.
• Moving and Handling of Objects.
• Theory of People Moving.

Course 7
The Workplace 2 - First Aid

• Principles of First Aid.
• Vital Statistics - Basic Life Support.
• Practical First Aid.
• Consciousness.
• Administration.

Course 8
The Workplace 3 - Safety at Work

• Introduction to Health and Safety.
• Fire Safety.

Course 9
The Workplace 4 - Infection Prevention and Control

• Overview of how infections spread.
• Types of infection and how they are transmitted.
• Good hygiene.
• Hand washing procedures.
• Needle-stick – risks and precautions.
• Needle-stick – what to do should you have an accident.

Course 10
The Workplace 5 - Safe Handling of Medication

• Legislation.
• Policies and Procedures.
• Drug Classifications.
• Routes of Administration.
• Risk Assessments.
• The 5 Rights.
• Storage and Disposal.

Course 11
The Workplace 6 - Safe Food Hygiene

• Legislation.
• Policies and Procedures.
• The importance of Food Safety.
• Your Responsibilities.
• Food Poisoning.
• Food-Bourne Disease.
• Bacteria.
• Food Contaminants and Prevention of Illness.
• Temperature Control.
• Food Storage.
• Personal Hygiene.
• Reporting Illness.
• Cleaning Methods.
• Refuse and Waste Management.

To discuss how Care Academy can help transform your organisation please contact us on 0161 228 1712 or via our online form form.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

As we all probably already know, the Skills for Care Common Induction Standards set out what all new care workers need to know within the first 12 weeks of their employment. However, conversations with some of our key clients confirm our hunch that, not surprisingly many people are still slightly confused regarding the exact details and how to apply them. We've therefore posted the full Skills for Care Common Induction Standards on our site, along with a direct link to the original Skills for Care page so nobody can claim them haven't found them!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Keeping up to date with regulatory and compliance training is never easy let alone cheap!

The cost of traditional classroom based training is often compounded by fairly high levels of staff turnover, resulting in significant recurring cost's such as trainers, classrooms, travel and resources.

Even before the economy slipped into recession, many organisations were looking for ways to ensure maximum value from their training budgets, whilst ensuring compliance with CSCI (Commission for Social Care Inspection) audits.

After talking with some of our clients, we identified two common problems;

1. Difficulty in forecasting exact number of staff requiring training, especially across multiple sectors such as older people, children and learning disability services.
2. Investing in staff development only to see key personnel move on soon afterwards.

In order to address these key issues, Care Academy has taken the bold step of introducing two new pricing models.

Learning Pathway 1 - Induction

Under this innovative pricing model, customers can purchase access to all Care Academy Induction programmes under a single licence fee. Once agreed, clients are then free to 'mix and match' employees to the appropriate training programme. This concept provides customers with maximum flexibility and the opportunity to respond to the changing needs of the organisation without incurring further cost.

Current induction programmes available within Learning Pathways include:Common Induction Standards (CIS), Childrens Workforce Development Council (CWDC), Learning Disability Qualification - Induction Award (LDQ-IA) to name but a few.

Learn Now - Certify Later

From April 2009 we are offering Learning Disability Qualification - Induction Award customers the opportunity to split both the learning content and certification. This means you can register staff on a dedicated LDQ-IA learning programme without registering (and paying) for the full certified qualification.

This provides a number of benefits including:

1. Clients can demonstrate to CSCI and other regulatory bodies a commitment to providing appropriate regulatory training.
2. Clients can choose to pay for the full certifcation at a later date when they are confident of the candidate suitability and commitment.

This is great news for learning disability services in particular, who can now take a significant step towards meeting their regulatory training requirements without incurring significant upfront expense.

To find out more about these offers please contact us on 0161 228 1712 or via the online form

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Here at Care Academy we are always looking for ways to improve the range of products and services avaialable to clients and as 2008 draws to a close here is a sneak preview of some of the exciting developments in the pipeline for 2009:

• Skills for Life audit tool to assist organisations with the assessment of numeracy and literacy skills. The audit tool is being created with a specific focus on care sector questions and scenarios and will form the basis for our 'learning pathway' concept, taking learners from induction through to NVQ and beyond.
• A range of on-line and tutor led numeracy and literacy programmes to support the delivery of Skills for Life programmes.
• Integrated learning content and e-portfolio solution to streamline the delivery, tracking and attainment of NVQ qualifications. A key feature of the system will be access to on-demand reporting specifically created to meet the requirements for access to funding streams.
• Specialised courses to address key topics including:
  • Dementia
  • Risk Assessment
  • End of Life
  • Administration of Medication
  • Equality and Diversity
  • Managing Challanging Behaviour
  • Lone Working
  • Infection Prevention and Control
  • COSHH
• Housing365 - a dedicated solution created specifically to provide Health and Safety training to Housing Assocaitions.

If you would like to find out more about any of our plans for 2009 please get in touch.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The new Adult Social Care Manager Induction Standards were launched by Skills for Care last week. The Standards were devised following intensive consultation and are part of the extended suite of products that support Skills for Cares leadership and management strategy. The Standards aim to ensure new managers are fully prepared prior to starting work.

Skills for Care CEO Andrea Rowe said: "High quality induction of new managers is essential if they are to be able to hit the ground running.

Aimed at both novice and experienced managers, in all types and sizes of organisation whether they are in the public or independent sector, the Standards will, according to Andrea Rowe: reflect the move to more personalised forms of social care, particularly as expressed in the government's Putting People First policy and Skills for Care and Skills for Health's joint 'common core principles' for supporting people's independence and ability to make decisions about their own care.

The basic web edition of the Standards is free to download. In addition, Skills for Care is to publish two books of the Standards, one for new managers themselves and one for those who oversee new managers or who are their mentors.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Training has hit the headlines again this week with a new poll from The Alzheimer’s Society showing overwhelming support for trained staff in care homes. The poll undertaken to mark the release of the charity’s new guide to choosing a care home - Putting Care Right - shows that ninety seven per cent of people agree well-trained staff are important when it comes to deciding on a good quality care home.

However, despite the weight placed on training, care staff receive no compulsory training in dementia - a condition affecting two thirds of all care home residents. Neil Hunt, chief executive of Alzheimer's Society says: “Our Putting Care Right campaign is about ensuring people with dementia get access to quality care. This means compulsory dementia training for all staff and tougher inspection and regulation systems. It also means challenging our views and raising expectations of care for people with dementia in care homes.”

At Care-Academy we have a comprehensive range of learning resources including an Introduction to Dementia programme for Care Workers. For more information and advice on our specialist training solutions call me, Paul Allman, on 0161 228 1712.